DIP devices and particularly the new PLCC part form an important part of the electronics industry. These devices are placed on a printed circuit board which has been silk-screened and treated to define precise locations for the solder pads of the device leads. These devices are required to conform to certain standards of uniformity for proper application to a printed circuit board. The configuration of the leads for these devices has gone through many stages in order to simplify and expedite the manufacture and assembly to printed circuit boards or the like. The well known prior art DIP devices include those which have leads depending generally transversely downwardly from opposite side edges of a rectangular plastic body portion which are insertable in openings in the printed circuit board. There are also so-called gull-winged SOIC devices of the type shown in U.S Pat. No. 5,146,101 owned by AMERICAN TECH MANUFACTURING CORPORATION, Assignee of the present application. This patent as well as other patents listed below show various methods and apparatus particularly suited for straightening, forming and scanning DIP devices:
______________________________________ Inventor U.S. Pat. No. Issued ______________________________________ Linker, Jr. et al 4,686,637 August 11, 1987 Linker, et al 4,705,152 November 10, 1987 Linker, et al 4,787,426 November 29, 1988 Linker, Jr. 5,113,916 May 2, 1992 ______________________________________
There are prior apparatus and methods for manufacturing devices having J-shaped leads such as in the NAKAJIMA U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,669 entitled METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A CHIP CARRIER issued on May 16, 1989. However, the prior apparatus and methods are not capable of reforming bent leads of manufactured devices in the manner of the present invention and specifically are not capable of raising any inwardly bent leads to reestablish the designated minimum H dimension for all of the leads which is the height dimension measured from the peaks to the base of the body portion of a lead.